The Cactus Incident
by frazzledsoul
Summary: Luke and Lorelai confront April about her abrupt change in behavior.


_Spring 2008_

Luke first noticed that something was amiss when he picked April up from the airport.

It was the middle of spring and she was wearing a turtleneck, a baseball cap, and sunglasses. When he asked her about it, she shrugged and claimed she thought that Connecticut was having a late winter spell, which didn't sound right to him at all. She was usually meticulous about checking the weather before came back in for her visits, and she'd lived here long enough to know that New England had settled into warm weather by this point. It unsettled him, but he figured he was overreacting, and decided not to say anything more just yet.

She was uncharacteristically quiet throughout dinner, and excused herself soon afterwards to Rory's room. Luke had checked in on her a few times and found her deep in phone conversation each time. She didn't seem to want to talk, so he wasn't going to push it. Part of him wondered if he had pushed her too fast these past few months: the past year and a half had forced a lot of changes on her, and he wondered if she was having problems adjusting to their recent change of residence.

He'd essentially moved into Lorelai's house by the end of the previous summer, but both of them were uncomfortable with moving April in as well until she had gotten a chance to know Lorelai. April seemed overly protective of him at first, but bit by bit they became more comfortable with each other, and by the time they approached the subject of them formally moving in at Christmas, she seemed enthusiastic. The plan was for her to stay in Rory's room until they could add on a formal bedroom for her upstairs: Rory was still on the road most of the time and although she had moved half of her things into a friend's apartment in Washington D.C, it was uncertain where she would end up after the election was over.

The construction over the past month had gone well under his supervision. Liz and T.J. had rejoined the Renaissance circuit earlier in the spring and he refused to let any stragglers contaminate the remodeling this time. This time, it was for real: he was ready to settle down to a life with Lorelai, and have April be a part of it. He wasn't going to let his stupidity get in the way again.

But something about April's silence continued to nag him.

"She's a teenage girl," Lorelai reminded him later on that night. "They get sullen. They get moody. It's normal."

"She's never been this quiet." He rubbed his knuckles together. "Do you think something happened?"

"Well, you know, I –" Lorelai began.

He looked up, concerned.

"What?"

"I saw a scratch on the side of her neck." Lorelai ran her fingers over the skin just below her chin on her right side. "Here. Just a little one."

"A _scratch_?"

Lorelai smiled. "Not that big of a deal. Maybe she ran into a cat –"

"She doesn't have a cat," Luke protested. "Anna's allergic to cats."

"I'm sure it's not that big of a deal, " Lorelai reassured him. "Maybe she got waylaid by a bat. A vampire bat."

"A vampire bat," Luke repeated.

"A _sassy_ vampire bat." Lorelai's eyes widened. "Maybe she couldn't outtalk the bat and it became a huge back and forth and she lunged at the bat and the bat lunged at her and then –"

"This sounds like something you've experienced before."

Lorelai nodded. "But you see, I won. She can only benefit from my wisdom on the next go round."

Luke reached for her hand and ran her fingers over her thumb. "One of the many reasons we keep you around, huh?"

Lorelai grinned and leaned over for a kiss. "You bet."

April slept in the next morning. When she finally emerged from Rory's room, she was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, her dark hair draped around her face.

Luke met her at the bottom of the stairs. "We're painting your room today. I'm not sure that's exactly room painting appropriate."

"I like this shirt."

"You'll get hot."

"We have fans."

"The more you like that shirt, the less you're going to like it after we get done. Change."

When April met Luke and Lorelai at the doorway of her bedroom a few minutes later, she had changed into a white tank top and tucked her hair back into a ponytail.

The scratches on the right side of her neck were clearly visible.

As well as on the left side.

And the weird pockmarks on her forehead.

Luke dropped the paint scraper on the ground and rushed over to her. "April, what the –" He ran his hand over the side of the face. "What happened to you?"

April shoved her hands in her pockets. "It's nothing."

Lorelai crossed the room to join them.

"It's _not_ nothing. Look how scratched up you are. What happened?"

April straightened her ponytail holder. "It's really not that big of a deal."

"Does your mom know about this?"

"She was with me." April shuffled from one foot to the other. "We went out to look for these birds. Chuck will willows. They don't build nests in trees. They lay them on the ground. I wanted to see what the eggs would look like. Well, I guess, I wasn't looking where I was going and –"

"You stepped on one," Lorelai interjected.

"I didn't mean to!" April insisted. "I was so careful, trying to watch where I was going, and I guess I kind of stepped over backwards and I stepped right on the nest. Or what substitutes as a nest. Seriously, the eggs were right on the ground, and then –"

She gulped. "They flew at me. Those stupid crazy birds flew at me. They weren't supposed to attack! It's like that crazy old movie. And they weren't even big birds. They were little birds! They came here –" She gestured to the right side of her neck. "And then –" She paused for a breath. "I ducked out of the way to make them stop. And then they went after Mom! And they were super vicious. She's worse than I am. They actually knocked her to the ground."

Luke's eyes met Lorelai's. She placed her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle a laugh.

Luke turned to April. " So what happened then?"

"We got out of there before they could peck out our eyes. We got patched up at the ER. I think Mom wanted to call you, but –" She crossed her arms over her chest. "It was just too embarrassing."

"I see." Luke looked at her quizzically. "And the pockmarks?"

"We tripped over a cactus on the way out." Luke raised his eyebrows. "It was a really big cactus. I got my foot stuck in it, and the pot broke –" April shook her head. "We didn't stop to go back in. We just kind of ran for the car."

"Uh huh."

April glared at him. "You look like –" Her gaze wandered to Lorelai. "You're laughing."

Lorelai shook her head. 'Nope. Not laughing."

Luke knew if he looked at her he wouldn't be able to help himself.

He shoved his own hands in his pockets. "I was just – I was remembering something that happened with your cousin."

"Doula? She's a toddler. She got attacked by birds?"

Luke met Lorelai's gaze. She smiled and looked down. "The other one. Jess. He got into a fistfight with a swan once. Got a black eye –"

"Ugh."

"I was just thinking this might be a family trait –"

"You know, I don't know why I even bother." April crossed the hallway to Luke and Lorelai's bedroom and slammed the door.

Luke turned to Lorelai, his mouth wide open. "She slammed the door."

Lorelai chuckled.

"She couldn't slam her own door. So she crossed the hallway, went to our room, and slammed that door. She actually crossed the –" Luke ran his hands through his hair. "I –"

Lorelai patted his shoulder. "Fifteen years old, babe. You're in for a wild ride." She walked towards the bedroom to coax April out of it.

Luke stared at his shoes, pondering how exactly he would survive the next couple of years.


End file.
